Talk:2023-01-27 Video - Alpha Two Tank Preview

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Transcription brute

• 00:00

Hello, everyone.

• 00:29

And welcome to another Ashes of Creation update.

• 00:35

Today, we are going to be sharing with you a preview

• 00:40

of the Alpha 2 tank archetype.

• 00:42

Now, I want you guys to keep in mind

• 00:44

as you're watching this preview that everything is still

• 00:46

subject to change, especially considering that the Alpha 2 is

• 00:50

going to give us a lot of feedback,

• 00:51

both from the players as well as data-driven,

• 00:55

that we're going to utilize in order

• 00:56

to improve the design features.

• 01:00

But your feedback from this video is very important.

• 01:03

And I am joined today by three of our absolute glorious

• 01:07

developers, one of our engineers with whom you've

• 01:10

spoken with in the past.

• 01:11

Keenan, how you doing, buddy?

• 01:13

I'm doing great.

• 01:14

Thanks for asking.

• 01:15

Welcome back again.

• 01:17

We are here at it again.

• 01:19

For those of you who watched, by the way, on the livestream,

• 01:21

you saw a previous iteration of this recording.

• 01:24

We're doing a little bit of rerecording

• 01:25

because there were some audio issues.

• 01:27

And also, I just wanted to give a little bit more

• 01:29

in-depth detail around the specific abilities, the area

• 01:32

that we're fighting in, and the encounter design.

• 01:34

But also, we have with us two of our glorious senior designers,

• 01:38

Brian and Trad.

• 01:39

How you guys doing?

• 01:41

Doing great.

• 01:41

Happy to be here.

• 01:43

Yep, let's do it again.

• 01:45

We got a lot of practice on this by now.

• 01:47

Yes, let's do it again.

• 01:48

And this time, you know what we're going to do?

• 01:50

We are going to perform flawlessly.

• 01:53

There's not going to be any edits here.

• 01:55

We're not going to use some GM powers.

• 01:57

We better do this good.

• 01:59

I'm not taking the heat for this.

• 02:01

I know.

• 02:03

OK, so before we get started, first, let's

• 02:05

talk about the area that we're in.

• 02:06

This is the Riverlands.

• 02:09

As many of you know, the Riverlands

• 02:10

is one of the predominant areas in Alpha 2

• 02:12

that players will be exploring.

• 02:14

This was home to the once ancient Aelan Empire,

• 02:18

a human race nation that was formed at the apex of Vera

• 02:22

before the fall.

• 02:24

And we are here to collect some gear.

• 02:27

I believe that I am looking for the remaining pieces

• 02:30

of the Titan Bark set.

• 02:31

Is that right, Brian?

• 02:34

Yes.

• 02:35

Awesome.

• 02:36

And also, there's a weapon and the shield available for you.

• 02:40

OK, so the weapon and the shield are

• 02:42

going to show us a little bit of the iteration

• 02:44

that you've been working on since our last live stream

• 02:46

with the cleric update, specifically

• 02:49

around the attack animations and root motion for the mace

• 02:53

and shield, is that correct?

• 02:54

Yeah, and not just me, but also the glorious animators

• 02:58

and effects artists, Meadow and Myers on the animation side

• 03:02

have been a pleasure to work with on this iteration

• 03:05

over the past month.

• 03:07

Yeah, we all knew that the base was

• 03:10

in a kind of rough first state in the cleric live stream,

• 03:13

but took another look at it.

• 03:15

And we focused more on pose holds and quick transitions

• 03:19

and an overall satisfying cadence.

• 03:21

And I think the end result is pretty good,

• 03:24

and it matches with the greatsword.

• 03:26

It's in kind of the same universe.

• 03:28

And I think we're starting to find our rhythm with weapon

• 03:30

creation, and it should be pretty straightforward

• 03:32

from here.

• 03:32

Absolutely.

• 03:33

And a lot of that feedback from the community

• 03:35

was with regards to the animation hit reactions

• 03:37

from the enemy NPCs, as well as the hit effects on weapon

• 03:41

impact to make it feel a bit more substantive and connective,

• 03:44

which I think the VFX team and the animation team

• 03:47

has done great jobs on both of those fronts.

• 03:50

And then let me talk a little bit about the setting.

• 03:52

So in the Riverlands here, what our objectives are,

• 03:56

you'll see a little bit of update here on the UI.

• 03:59

So we're taking a look at our new quest journal.

• 04:03

The area that we're in, we're going

• 04:05

to be heading towards is called the Oakenbane Keep.

• 04:08

And the Oakenbane Keep is once military academy

• 04:12

before the fall of the Aelin Empire during the Exodus.

• 04:16

And it was used to kind of train up recruits.

• 04:18

But now those recruits and perhaps some of their teachers

• 04:22

might be haunting that location.

• 04:24

And we need to take care of them and dispatch them with haste.

• 04:28

You'll see some of the updates on the itemization

• 04:31

and the inventory here with some of the tool tips and icons.

• 04:37

And also you'll see a little bit of the update

• 04:39

to the world map, which is still a work in progress.

• 04:41

Everything you're going to see here, as I said,

• 04:43

is a work in progress that is deserving

• 04:46

of your attention and feedback so that we

• 04:48

can make more iterations and, of course, make it better.

• 04:52

So with that being said, let's do a quick kind of run-through

• 04:55

of the abilities.

• 04:56

I don't want to get necessarily engaged with any enemies.

• 04:59

So I'm just going to kind of use the abilities

• 05:02

without an enemy kind of in my targeting.

• 05:06

Let's talk about this first one.

• 05:08

We have a shield assault.

• 05:09

Now, does this require a shield in order to use?

• 05:14

I would hope so.

• 05:15

It's the name.

• 05:15

Yes, absolutely.

• 05:17

Now, of course, I have the ability

• 05:18

because of the GM cheats a little bit

• 05:24

to use that ability without the shield,

• 05:26

but I'm not going to for the purposes of this demonstration.

• 05:29

But tell me a little bit about the shield assault.

• 05:31

What is its intent as an ability, guys?

• 05:35

Yeah.

• 05:36

Yeah.

• 05:37

So it's got a few things going on with it.

• 05:39

I would say the primary intent of it

• 05:41

is that it is how you engage an encounter.

• 05:46

It's got a bit of mobility.

• 05:47

It's not like a super far charge that

• 05:49

carries you across the screen or anything, but yeah, there you go.

• 05:53

But it's basically a way to engage with the enemy,

• 05:55

get some damage out, and also grab some threat.

• 05:58

It applies a pretty good chunk of threat

• 06:01

in a small area in front of you, so it's

• 06:02

really good at grabbing snap threat on some high priority

• 06:05

target.

• 06:06

And it looks like that this has a variable distance that's

• 06:09

traveled.

• 06:09

So essentially, if I have a target that's directly

• 06:12

in front of me right now, it's not

• 06:13

predicated on having an actual target,

• 06:15

but it is a templated attack.

• 06:17

And if that target is immediately in front of me,

• 06:19

then the distance traveled will be shorter.

• 06:20

Is that correct?

• 06:21

Exactly.

• 06:22

And you'll see some of that when we're actually in action.

• 06:24

Right now, you're seeing the full distance.

• 06:25

It's, again, a pretty short range mobility skill.

• 06:28

But yeah, you can also just use it point blank on something,

• 06:32

and it's not going to make you overshoot the target,

• 06:34

and then you have to reposition, because that

• 06:35

can be kind of annoying with some of those skill types.

• 06:37

Awesome.

• 06:38

And you said that this generates threat,

• 06:39

but I see we have a second ability as well called

• 06:41

inciting strikes.

• 06:44

And if I use that ability, that's

• 06:46

a forward cone AOE attack that generates additional threat

• 06:48

and damage on targets impacted.

• 06:50

Is that correct?

• 06:51

Exactly.

• 06:52

That one's a bit more effective, that AOE threat.

• 06:54

So it's got a good of a wider hitbox,

• 06:57

good for grabbing multiple targets and cleaving them all.

• 07:01

So that'll be what you'll be using

• 07:02

if there's a pack of stuff on us and you want

• 07:04

to just get them all off of us.

• 07:07

But not quite as much threat as the shield assault

• 07:10

for one target.

• 07:11

So each of them kind of has their utility there for aggro.

• 07:14

Awesome.

• 07:15

Now, obviously, as part of our kit design,

• 07:16

we want to encourage synergies, especially within inner kit

• 07:22

synergy, but also with the party.

• 07:24

And I see that we have two abilities, specifically

• 07:27

shield assault as well as tremoring bellow.

• 07:29

And tremoring bellow applies a status condition

• 07:33

that can be promoted if there is an existing status

• 07:36

condition on the target.

• 07:38

So it looks like I can create the shaken condition,

• 07:43

and then I can trip shaken targets

• 07:46

with the tremoring bellow.

• 07:47

Is that correct?

• 07:49

It's actually a snare.

• 07:50

So if you use it on a snare target,

• 07:53

so there's two components to that ability.

• 07:55

It's got a shout component, which is a forward cone.

• 07:58

And then it's all, yeah, as you can kind of see there,

• 08:00

that shock wave that flew out.

• 08:02

And it kind of extends past the second element of that,

• 08:05

which is a PBOE around Steven.

• 08:08

If you use that ability again, you'll

• 08:10

see kind of like the ground kick up,

• 08:12

and that's like the earthquake element of it.

• 08:16

And that does damage, and that does

• 08:18

what Steven was alluding to, where

• 08:20

if your target is snare, then it will knock enemies down,

• 08:24

which is our trip effect.

• 08:26

And one thing I forgot to mention on the shield assault

• 08:28

ability is it does apply a snare,

• 08:30

so you've got a little bit of inner kit synergy going on

• 08:32

there.

• 08:32

It's a pretty satisfying combo to charge in and then knock them

• 08:36

down off the stock.

• 08:37

Yeah, it looks pretty good.

• 08:39

And then also after that, we have another ability.

• 08:43

Brian, talk to me a little bit about grit and its purpose.

• 08:46

Yeah, grit is some of your bread and butter mitigation skills

• 08:50

as a tank.

• 08:51

So if you're really getting some heat, you'll want to pop that.

• 08:56

And if you haven't had it on for a bit,

• 08:59

you're going to be generating stacks of courage.

• 09:01

And the more stacks of courage you have,

• 09:04

that'll give you increased damage mitigation

• 09:07

for a certain number of hits.

• 09:09

And I notice that I'm slowed when I used grit,

• 09:11

so really it's a very situational ability usage,

• 09:15

depending on what type of situation you find yourself in.

• 09:18

Also, this can be activated mid-swing in another ability,

• 09:24

right?

• 09:25

Yep.

• 09:26

The way I always refer to this ability

• 09:28

is you can think of it kind of like an off-GCD ability,

• 09:31

where you can use it even though you have another ability

• 09:35

activating so that it's really responsive

• 09:37

and can be popped in like an emergency.

• 09:39

You don't have to wait for that animation to complete

• 09:42

or for that global cooldown to finish.

• 09:43

You just pop it in instantly.

• 09:45

It applies on and off.

• 09:46

And it's a toggled ability, so you can kind of turn it on

• 09:49

and off at your disclosure.

• 09:52

Nice, very cool.

• 09:53

And I see this Aegis is causing essentially a area of effect

• 09:59

that our party members can live within.

• 10:03

And if they do, I'm absorbing a portion

• 10:06

of their damage taken pre-mitigation.

• 10:09

Is that correct as well?

• 10:10

Keenan?

• 10:13

Yeah, that's right.

• 10:15

It forks some percentage of the incoming hit

• 10:19

and applies it to your mitigation, not the party

• 10:21

members.

• 10:21

Nice, very cool.

• 10:23

Very cool.

• 10:23

All right, well, this kind of gives you

• 10:25

guys a comprehensive overview.

• 10:26

I'm sorry.

• 10:27

In addition to that, we have a grapple,

• 10:28

but that will require a target.

• 10:30

And the grapple is missing some of the effects, as I said,

• 10:32

work in progress.

• 10:33

But we can still use it in order to kind of do

• 10:36

certain types of engagements.

• 10:38

So with that quick kind of demonstration

• 10:41

of these abilities, let's see what

• 10:42

we can do to acquire that mason shield

• 10:45

and also to test our capabilities as a party.

• 10:50

How cohesive can we be?

• 10:54

So I would ask, given that we're low level,

• 10:56

and just so you guys are aware, because we're lower level,

• 10:58

we're about level 15, our access to our class kit

• 11:02

is a bit limited.

• 11:02

As you would expect, you want to have that ramp and kind

• 11:05

of class progression.

• 11:06

And as a result, I'm going to ask,

• 11:07

because we have such strong DPS users here in the fighter

• 11:12

and in the ranger, that you give me

• 11:14

a moment with the larger monsters

• 11:16

to establish kind of a bit of threat.

• 11:21

But let me pull this guy to us.

• 11:23

Does not compute.

• 11:25

Does not compute.

• 11:26

Oh, yeah.

• 11:27

OK.

• 11:28

It's feeling good.

• 11:29

I love the little stream, the ambient sound effects

• 11:31

that Kat has done.

• 11:32

It really gives us a stream.

• 11:33

Yeah, the stream is really nice.

• 11:34

It puts us, it makes me need to go to the bathroom.

• 11:35

I'm just kidding.

• 11:36

AFK BRB.

• 11:37

There we go.

• 11:38

Oh, my god.

• 11:39

Oh, my god.

• 11:40

Oh, my god.

• 11:41

Oh, my god.

• 11:42

Oh, my god.

• 11:43

Oh, my god.

• 11:44

Oh, my god.

• 11:45

Oh, my god.

• 11:46

Oh, my god.

• 11:47

Oh, my god.

• 11:48

Oh, my god.

• 11:49

Oh, my god.

• 11:50

Oh, my god.

• 11:51

Oh, my god.

• 11:52

Oh, my god.

• 11:53

Oh, my god.

• 11:54

Oh, my god.

• 11:55

Oh, my god.

• 11:56

Sugar hole Explosion, one more appliances go.

• 11:57

Got that knocked out.

• 11:58

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

• 11:59

Alright, now as you guys will see, these guys are relatively easy to dispatch.

• 12:03

You probably saw them in our ranger showcase.

• 12:05

These are some of the minotaurs that are out in the early parts of this river land area.

• 12:09

We're trying to reach the ocean Bane keeps.

• 12:11

That is the location of our goodies and the quests that we have.

• 12:15

They deserve better.

• 12:17

Probably referring to the people that died there, which is really sad to think about.

• 12:21

to think about. Oh my god. Got it.

• 12:30

She pulled that rain collar in.

• 12:37

That was just smash his face. Easy peasy. What do we got up here? Looks like a

• 12:47

destroyed boat. What was a boat even doing here in the first place? Could have been a big flood.

• 12:54

Probably. Maybe we're in a drought.

• 13:04

Nice. I love the the effects on the staff and the their little bubble shield. Yeah

• 13:15

these minotaurs are awesome looking. Yeah they are. I like their size. Just the

• 13:19

general size. Alright looks like we got somebody over here to the right. Let me

• 13:23

see if I can pull that guy as well. And these are more seriously tuned for...

• 13:33

Yeah these guys are more tuned towards that group. Now this is intended for a

• 13:39

full group. Of course we are a party of four. I am losing a bit of aggro on this guy.

• 13:45

There we go. Got him back. Knock him down to the ground.

• 13:55

A little bit more deeps. Let's see. I could probably avoid that other guy over there.

• 14:03

Let me grab this echo. Oh he's coming toward us. Aggro. Alright. Got him both.

• 14:12

We're good.

• 14:14

Good. We have this other one. I'm going to activate some shield for us. I'm coming down.

• 14:31

No, Manta. Oh no. Flawless. I'm back up. It's okay. As long as the party... Oh and the

• 14:42

party's back. Okay. Let me see here.

• 14:51

We're okay. Let's get our... Oh where did you guys go? We're kiting. I think they're

• 14:58

leashing. Okay okay. Let's let them leash. I see Forgey and Ferguson is here. We can get him up.

• 15:08

Let's just avoid the guys to the right real quick. Yeah I think he patrolled

• 15:14

over as you were moving up there.

• 15:17

Alright I'm going to come back. Oh there's one up there too. Let's pull him back here. Let's pull him back.

• 15:24

Alright. Go for it.

• 15:26

I got the boss. Just the boss. Okay we got just the boss so we should be good.

• 15:43

He's on me. Knock him down.

• 15:49

I need to get Keenan some heroes. He's out of range. I like the... I feel like there's a pretty strong damage mitigation from the Rift.

• 16:13

Yeah especially if you build up a bit of courage beforehand. Doing okay on mana.

• 16:24

Alright. I got him down almost. This guy should have a mace for me right? Yep.

• 16:31

Oh he's got the hammer of Korin. Okay. Looks like it has some physical penetration.

• 16:37

Of course these stats you'll see here are not the final stats. I won't quite reveal that

• 16:41

just yet but let me see if I can... okay so in the group loot obviously there's a

• 16:49

lot of functionality here that parties have the ability to customize. There can

• 16:52

be loot master, there can be round robin, there can be need, greed, pass that's

• 16:57

applied on a per rarity basis depending on the parties choices. Some

• 17:05

materials and now I should have the ability to use... so the Lorik of

• 17:11

Indicta Shield. That's not the shield I'm looking for. I'm trying to get a tower

• 17:14

shield but in the meantime I can use this shield which works I think but it's

• 17:22

not gonna be as good as the tower shield but it'll help. So now let me see what

• 17:26

happens when I use my shield rush with this. Stay on me little baby Echo.

• 17:49

Look at that. Not too bad here. So talk to me a little bit about kind of some of

• 17:59

the differences that we had between the tank archetype in Alpha 1 and the tank

• 18:05

archetype that we will be having in Alpha 2. Yeah I could speak to that a bit. So for

• 18:11

those of you that were part of Alpha 1 or have seen some of that footage you

• 18:16

might have noticed that the tank felt very much more like an offensive melee

• 18:21

type. Something you'd always expect more from a fighter and part of that is

• 18:26

because we didn't really have any other archetypes at that time to fill that

• 18:30

role. So you're gonna notice a lot more defense and control and threat mechanics

• 18:37

on this version of the tank that you didn't necessarily see as much of prior.

• 18:42

So as we've kind of already gone over a lot of the ability mechanics you

• 18:46

probably already noticed that you've got a lot more reliable mechanics that you

• 18:51

can use pretty frequently to defend your party and also defend yourself.

• 18:58

And what is the type of tank role we're looking to achieve with this particular

• 19:03

class fantasy, this class kit that we have? I would say we're you know Ashes of

• 19:09

Creation Sink will be a pretty classic one. One that you know tank players are

• 19:14

familiar with and I think that's that's what people want. We don't need to

• 19:18

necessarily need to find what the tank is but I think we can improve it. There's

• 19:23

some things that obviously you'll have your expected mechanics like threat

• 19:30

management, regeneration, mitigation, control, battlefield control, CC effects

• 19:38

but then you know we'd also like to see more direct ways of protecting your

• 19:41

party members too. Exploring just like Aegis that's just scratching the

• 19:47

surface of that kind of thing but being able to actually actively take damage

• 19:53

for your allies that isn't just manipulating the AI. Because another thing

• 19:57

about tanks that I think a lot of people deal with other games is they're pretty

• 20:02

bad in PvP. Like when threat is removed from the equation, what am I doing as a

• 20:09

tank when players just ignore me? And so we want to offer more direct mechanics

• 20:13

that of course even players or encourage players to attack the tank to make it so

• 20:17

that the tank can't protect their allies against you.

• 20:24

Yeah I think you know traditionally I like playing a combination of tank healer.

• 20:30

I mean I've also played of course mages and DPSs but I like the role of kind of

• 20:38

the control aspect, the mitigation, the kind of protective nature, the ability to

• 20:42

kind of route enemies in a fashion that is most conducive to the engagement of

• 20:47

the encounter. That's what I really like here. So as you can see we're making good

• 20:53

progress here. A lot better than the first round. Once we get up here I want to

• 21:01

showcase a little bit of the wind actors on this grass that you guys kind of see

• 21:05

around us.

• 21:16

These guys are pieces of cake. We're doing better. In small numbers.

• 21:22

We're gonna have some challenge ahead of us because this is a very intense

• 21:26

area of these enemies and we're not careful with the positioning. We could end up with a big fight on our part.

• 21:33

Come over here buddy boy. Yeah what you got? Come on over. See sometimes when I like to play from a showcase perspective I do so in the realm of like a new player.

• 21:56

Persona wise. Of course. Of course but of course. I see I'm ticking for 50. I don't

• 22:06

know what that ticking for 50 is. Sit for mana if y'all need it. Yeah I think

• 22:13

communal restoration or something applies a hot. Oh yeah. No that's cleansing.

• 22:19

Oh you're right cleansing. Take a seat and get some restorative mana. So you guys

• 22:25

are gonna see here ahead of us this is a pretty grassy area. It's a beautiful area.

• 22:32

I'm liking it but I want to showcase a little bit of how abilities interact

• 22:37

with the grass and with the foliage. So you'll remember that we have that kind

• 22:42

of forward shout and watch what happens when I use it here. Boom! Oh it's like a

• 22:48

heart shape. It's like a heart shape little AoE of anger and malice. I think

• 22:56

that's a really cool touch of just like visual tech that a lot of a lot of games

• 23:00

have been explored. Absolutely. Makes you feel like grounded in the world. Yeah I agree

• 23:05

it it's very immersive. I would like to kind of move in this direction guys kind

• 23:10

of if you want to stay close to me. See what we can accomplish here. This way.

• 23:20

Grab this guy over here. Sit down.

• 23:29

Good. Let me know if you see any targets moving towards us. And we'll maybe approach this. Let's go this way.

• 23:51

Stay close. I'm gonna pull this guy over real quick. There we go. I think you resisted it.

• 24:04

He is on me. That's okay. Just stay near me if you can. He peels on me. I got shield up.

• 24:20

Let's focus down that one target. Target's dead. We'll switch over. On me.

• 24:43

Now this is a pretty dense area. That's a problem. Let me see. Let's try to

• 24:50

pull this guy one at a time. Hold on. Let me get people topped off. Get close if you can to me.

• 24:55

Alright here we go.

• 24:58

Okay knocked him. Nice. Focusing there. Nice. Nicely done. Let's grab this guy right here.

• 25:34

Nice. I love the effects on these guys. The animation did a great job as well.

• 25:42

Alright let's move up over to this rock area. I need to sit real quick if we can sit before

• 25:53

the respawn occurs. Just grab some mana back. It's a beautiful zone. Serene. I know.

• 26:04

I couldn't even hear the sound of the birds. There's so many ghosts and shades in this area.

• 26:09

It's kind of sad. Now I believe in this particular Okanbane Keep area, there used to be these old

• 26:19

magnificent kind of essence ridden trees, but they were all harvested to produce kind of

• 26:25

magical artifact items and now only one remains which Lord Okanbane himself guards.

• 26:35

Alright I think I'm good. Let me grab this guy here. I'm just gonna body pull him. Come on buddy. Okay.

• 26:51

You guys finish him off. I'm gonna grab the next one. Okay we've got the boss as well. I'm gonna activate my grit.

• 27:06

Try to focus the little dude first. I'm gonna try to knock the boss down. I'm gonna put up a shield.

• 27:21

Just in case you need it. Oh I went down. I'm coming back up. I'm coming back up.

• 27:32

I'm coming down now. Trying to drop some aggro. Trying to get him off.

• 28:00

Good job. Keep it up. Almost. Boom! Not bad. Only one death. Yeah that wasn't too bad.

• 28:10

We got a tower shield now. I need that of course as the tank. You get all the loot this run.

• 28:18

Yay! It is the tank showcase. It's the tank run. Alright let me put on this glorious tower shield.

• 28:25

Let me compare it actually. Oh I can't compare it. Oh there we go. I'm loving it. That is a true tower shield.

• 28:33

Now I'm of course to having like a medium-sized tower shield as a dwarf in most tabletop RPGs that I play.

• 28:39

So that I just have complete cover against my enemies. But this isn't bad either. I like it.

• 28:46

It's very very polished. The metal. Yeah it fits with the the armor from this area.

• 29:05

We have how many more bosses are we going to have? A couple of leggings and a chest piece.

• 29:10

Now we really in that live stream did not perform well against the main boss dude.

• 29:15

But again this is an area intended for eight people with pots and you know other supplies

• 29:23

that we don't necessarily have access to. I'm gonna knock them down into one.

• 29:31

Yeah like a lot of other classic inspired MMOs like you can still do it with lower numbers.

• 29:37

It's just gonna take a while. You gotta be more careful. Yeah and tell me a little bit about kind

• 29:42

of you know our decisions around allowing kind of content to get experienced by lower level players.

• 29:48

What type of safeguards do we put from you know power leveling or tweaking? Obviously we adjust

• 29:54

experience based on level differential between the target enemy and the group.

• 30:03

How do we kind of do that?

• 30:05

Obviously we take the difference in the party max level and the party's lowest level and those

• 30:11

things then indicate the modifier that is applied to incoming experience based on the number of

• 30:18

participants within that party and those help safeguard those things. And in addition to that

• 30:35

we also have experience bonus for grouping up that's pretty cool.

• 30:42

It's higher and higher the more people you have in your group to really encourage those full

• 30:45

groups. Yes and obviously the way that we kind of design the encounter for these types of areas is

• 30:53

that certain monsters will have certain types of strengths and weaknesses those of course will

• 30:59

correlate to certain types of class kits so some areas might be more beneficial for you to kind of

• 31:03

exp in versus others and a big role in that non-solo gameplay of course is going to be group

• 31:08

composition right? Yeah that's one thing I really love about our diverse class kits that we have

• 31:15

available to us in Ashes is the diverse content that comes along with that right like for an

• 31:20

optimal group for one area might involve you know three or four ranged dps but another area you might

• 31:26

want to stack fighters for all the cc that they can bring so different groups for different areas.

• 31:31

Easy.

• 31:38

How far oh we have to go just up this way right? Just up here and around the hill. He's on some

• 31:44

ruins in the back.

• 31:49

Come on over here buddy come on come on. Hey Tread can you change the loot rules to drop the rarity

• 31:57

from what it's at right now like one level so that greens are rollable? Oh good call good call.

• 32:04

Where do I do that? Oh you can do that.

• 32:09

Oh I see. Oh I see.

• 32:12

Oh good call good call. Where do I do that? Oh options party settings.

• 32:24

Hold up Steve. All right okay standby tank. All right so I'm saying I'm saying what uh

• 32:32

need a group? Yeah yeah. So all right common and uncommon need a group. Yep party so powerful so

• 32:43

strong so diverse. Oh voting change huh what do we got here um I will accept that. Accept.

• 32:54

All right let's see here. I really love that system by the way um the voting to accept

• 33:06

loot change rules. Oh you don't like the ninja party loot change? You have to trust your group

• 33:12

leader. I know you mean reputation right like hey I was in this group and a ninja changed a

• 33:18

loot right before the boss go that guy's on our kls list. It creates conflict it's a good thing. Soft

• 33:24

friction. Yeah it'd be funny whenever they try to do that in our game and then the vote window pops up.

• 33:35

I love the lightning attack on this guy.

• 33:40

Oh whoops guys I out I accidentally like went into my settings and changed some very deep

• 33:45

stuff whoops. Oh no whoops totally an accident. I had no clue and it just happened before this

• 33:52

legendary drop I don't know how that was possible.

• 33:58

We call those ninja looters.

• 34:03

I don't know this kind of impacts on my ranger fantasy. Really?

• 34:07

Aren't you all about like nature and being one? Oh yeah yeah but also loot. Oh but also loot I

• 34:16

think that's the road. Definitely rangers I feel like rangers and rogues sometimes are the same.

• 34:25

Just a ranged rogue. Pretty much. No to me sometimes the ranger is always the first that's

• 34:34

like huh this engagement isn't looking so hot let me use the advantage I already have from

• 34:39

a distance to kind of leave here. Okay hold on I'm gonna grab this guy. Like he's about to do now.

• 34:46

Yeah no no no no no this isn't a dangerous situation.

• 34:49

Look it's survival of the furthest. Nice. Nice I like that survival of the furthest.

• 35:05

All right let's go kill this guy over here first I think he has leggings yeah?

• 35:09

I do like the old school feel of carefully navigating through the space. Oh absolutely.

• 35:26

Trying not to pull too many things at once. Oh yeah I'm not about that lawnmower combat at all.

• 35:32

Yeah Jeremy, Doug and the other teams did a really good job on the encounters here.

• 35:35

Yeah that can be a problem when you move into an area and it's just like overwhelmingly dense and

• 35:42

sometimes those areas you like are happy if there's other parties that are nearby and you're

• 35:46

like okay cool you're keeping the spawn rate down for me a little bit. Oh we got somebody here. Oh

• 35:50

god let me see if I can actively block that. Boom! What's up buddy? What's up? Nice. Let's go again.

• 35:56

Skills. I'm just gonna let you take that one I need some mana. I want to get them to shoot me

• 36:04

I want to get them to shoot me again. Boom! I'd like to explore like a perfect block thing where

• 36:09

if you time it perfectly you get an additional bonus. Oh that would be great like a kind of

• 36:14

almost Gears of Warry where you have that active reload. The engineer in me is now crying.

• 36:22

We'll be left to be somewhat a little forgiving but like I've been playing Valheim lately and

• 36:27

it's really fun to do there a perfect block. I'm feeling it I'm feeling that block as soon

• 36:31

and it's just so good with the sound effects that are associated with that cat did on that bolt. Oh

• 36:35

feels so good. Okay it looks like we're grabbing two. Let me get aggro on the boss first I'm gonna

• 36:40

need some heals. I'm just gonna build up hate here on the boss you guys focus down that add.

• 36:52

Try and keep you both up. I should be good I have my grit active and I have my active block

• 36:58

you just keep Keenan alive he looks like he's taking some damage. Working on it he's almost down.

• 37:09

How dare you how dare this guy.

• 37:13

Crew peel coming up.

• 37:17

How dare him the arborist Historia.

• 37:21

Oh that was way well knocked him. Let me pull him over here a little bit. Come on over buddy.

• 37:32

Come on come to me. Crew peel coming up again. Pulling him.

• 37:43

Knocking him.

• 37:43

There we go let's go let's go.

• 37:52

Easy.

• 37:56

Nice what does he got? Titan bark leggings. Sweet we're almost there I need that of course.

• 38:07

All right we handled that guy with ease maybe we'll be okay with the Lord Okinbane.

• 38:11

I think if we just you know clear carefully we'll be fine. All right let's keep on clearing I'm

• 38:16

gonna pull I'm gonna pull the left side first. Stand by stand by. I would pull them like back

• 38:25

over here because we'll have mobs on both sides of you. Dude yeah let's go over here actually

• 38:29

let's go to the right. I don't know if I can I think they're socially aggro if I.

• 38:35

I'm just hoping I'm not gonna. I would do it now because the other one's patrolling

• 38:41

away. There we go okay oh god we got three okay just stand behind me stand behind me let me roll

• 38:45

it up don't go yet. Don't go yet hold on all right you guys can go now focus one target.

• 39:01

Putting a shield up.

• 39:06

I don't think we want to stand in that because then we just get hit by cleaves.

• 39:09

Knocking oh yeah don't stand in that. One on me. Drag keep yourself up I'm okay for a little bit.

• 39:25

Okay good I'm down all right.

• 39:31

Get yourself back up get up get up.

• 39:41

There we go there we go.

• 39:45

There's another one near you yeah don't back up any further come back come forward come forward.

• 39:50

Yeah don't back up any further come back come forward come forward.

• 39:59

All right we got him that's a rebel yeah three of those guys is a lot that's a lot for a party of

• 40:06

four. Adds okay we got one add two in the back here did you hear that of course the ranger would

• 40:15

say that I'm still alive. I'm going to focus the echo. Now we've talked about this in the past but

• 40:31

the active blocking might be an ability that it's universal of course it's universal but it

• 40:39

might be consuming mana and you'll be able to adjust that mana consumption based off of your

• 40:44

passive spec into your skill trees. In addition it might also consume stamina where that's something

• 40:51

we're going to be testing as part of alpha 2. Sorry but sometimes when I talk I don't.

• 41:02

All right let's move up.

• 41:03

Should we go up to the left? Yeah let's go up to the second at the top. Yeah let's take this guy.

• 41:23

I'm gonna have to get some mana after this.

• 41:37

Nice all right maybe we can just sit right here for a second just looking down oh there's the tree

• 41:44

the tree in all its glory it's beautiful

• 41:55

I think uh Scott Allen did that

• 41:59

nice little area. I wonder what kind of wood it gives.

• 42:05

It's a good question.

• 42:06

There's only one left and you want to chop it down. I feel like I'm having are we having an earthquake?

• 42:16

Like my table's moving. I think we're good. I'm gonna get some sleep Stephen. I know right oh my god.

• 42:22

It's time for all of us to get some sleep. I know all right I'm gonna pull this guy up here and stand by.

• 42:41

Okay we're doing good there you guys keep focusing him and grab this next dude.

• 42:47

Nice.

• 43:00

Very dangerously close to a resident on the left.

• 43:03

All right all right.

• 43:16

All right so after that guy. I think we should clear all three of these to be honest.

• 43:23

Yeah watch the angle on the pole. You don't want to pull in front of Okumbane. He does a big AoE so

• 43:29

we're gonna have to spread out and then we're gonna aggro if we do that. Okay stand right here

• 43:34

stand right here on me in this position don't don't deviate from this one hold here

• 43:39

and then let me see if I can grab this echo first.

• 43:47

And if I can there we go. I'm gonna grab the boss you guys kill the echo.

• 43:52

Yeah take the boss back to his room. Okay stand by. I'm gonna attack that boss.

• 44:06

Oh god it hurts it hurts.

• 44:13

All right I got the boss on the ground keep keying it up oh god.

• 44:16

I'm holding the boss down. Can't keep up with it. Okay I'm good.

• 44:24

Oh so close I'm gonna knock him down. All right good good good we're good. Dropping at chains.

• 44:32

Nice.

• 44:42

Knocking him.

• 44:42

All right holding aggro. I'm gonna pull him inside of his mausoleum where he should be laid to rest

• 44:49

appropriately. Come here follow me into your final resting place Lord Okumbane.

• 45:01

He didn't like that.

• 45:03

Oh he's going to sleep. Shhh just go to sleep go to sleep. Do it.

• 45:08

Rest now. It's happening.

• 45:13

I commit you to the ground Lord Okumbane.

• 45:19

Well done ladies and gentlemen. That was a good fight. That was good. I'm grabbing my

• 45:25

need on the Titan Bark chest plate.

• 45:27

And then now it is time to reveal the glory of our pursuits. I am going to equip said things.

• 45:59

Oh it looks so good. Oh yeah it looks so glorious. Jelly. How's our art team so good? I know the

• 46:09

art team is unbelievable. I mean really they're just so good. Well everyone I hope you guys

• 46:16

enjoyed this brief demonstration of our alpha 2 preview for the tank archetype. Of course as we

• 46:23

said this is all a work in progress. There are many things that will change. Testing is very

• 46:27

important. Your feedback is incredibly important. Please make sure that you leave all commentary

• 46:32

possible within the YouTube video on our forums on our reddit on twitter everywhere possible.

• 46:38

We always take that stuff very seriously and we iterate upon it as you've seen between November's

• 46:42

live stream and this month's live stream. I hope you all enjoyed it. Keenan, Trad, Brian thank you

• 46:49

very much for joining us and we will see you all next time. Cheers everyone. Cheers.